Pictured: The Church of England spreads as the colonial empire grew throughout the world.
Blog 2/6 by Bishop Glenn Davies
Dear brothers and sisters of our shared faith,
We are delighted to share with you the second in a series of blogs from one talk given by Bishop of the Diocese of the Southern Cross, Glenn Davies at the recent G26 conference.
The topic was Canonical Alignment and Differentiation, and the focus of the session was what it means to be Walking Together in Faithfulness.
To recap, what will the series of blogs be covering?
- Introduction and first point, ‘Good order in the Church: Why constitutions matter.’
- (This blog) Second point, ‘The growing independence of the colonial churches (including in Australia).’
- Third point, ‘When institutions fail.’
- Fourth, ‘Why you can reject the Instruments of Communion and still be authentically Anglican.’
- Fifth, ‘Why separating from Canterbury matters.’
- Conclusion, ‘The Way Ahead: Guarding authentic Anglicanism.’
We encourage you to review these at your own pace.
Over to you, Glenn!
“As the British colonies matured into individual nations, the ties with England were either loosened or completely broken. The United States of America was the first to break ranks at the time of the Revolution, and in 1789 the first General Convention (aka General Synod), comprising three houses of bishops, clergy and laity was convened. Other colonies followed suit with their own ecclesiastical governance by General Synod ̶ in New Zealand in 1857, South Africa in 1870, Australia in 1872 and Canada in 1893. Yet each were distinctively Anglican in the manner described by Archbishop Charles Longley at the first Lambeth Conference in 1867.
His opening address stated the purpose of the Conference.
[It is for] cementing yet more firmly the bonds of Christian communion between Churches acknowledging one Lord, one faith, one baptism, connected not only by the ties of kindred, but by common formularies…our very presence here is a witness to our resolution to maintain the faith which we hold in common as our priceless heritage, set forth in our Liturgy and other formularies [emphasis added].
The Anglican Communion from the very first use of that phrase, was defined as a fellowship of independent Anglican Provinces, bound together by their shared heritage and commitment to maintain the faith of Holy Scripture and the Reformation Formularies of the Thirty-nine Articles and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
While neither the Lambeth Conference nor the Anglican Communion, was ever governed by a synodical structure, each province developed their own constitutional structure by way of a General Synod, encompassing the various dioceses, with their respective synods. By contrast, it was not until 1970 that the Church of England established its first autonomous General Synod, superseding the Church Assembly Act of 1919 which for the first time comprised three houses of bishops, clergy and laity, but required parliamentary consent for decisions.
Thus, when the first Lambeth Conference was held in 1867, the colonial and ex-colonial Churches were well on their way to being independent, autonomous provinces. Over the next one hundred years, the final legal separation of these Churches from the Mother Church was achieved in a similar manner to the way in which the Commonwealth replaced the British Empire. Yet there was a sentimental attachment to the See of Canterbury, even in those countries which had never been British colonies but had received the gospel through English missionary organisations, such as Crosslinks, the Church Missionary Society and the South American Missionary Society.
It was therefore natural that provincial constitutions often contained a reference to the Church of England or the See of Canterbury, as the former was their Mother Church from whom they had learned the gospel, and the latter was the recognised leader of the Church of England, and consequently of all Anglican Churches in the Communion. “
Please continue reading at your own pace the remainder of this talk.